CHANGE MORE OF THE SAME: Maduro’s biggest test comes after election day in Venezuela. “Widely expected to be re-elected on May 20, the president faces a mounting crisis.”

Dimitris Pantoulas, a political analyst based in Caracas, believes the president’s confidence is well-founded. “Maduro will win. Of that I have zero doubt,” he said. “What’s more, I don’t think he’ll even need to resort to outright fraud on election day to do it. The electoral process is skewed so much in his favour that he will get the votes he needs.”

The bigger question is what Mr Maduro will do after next Sunday’s vote given the magnitude of Venezuela’s economic collapse, mounting international opposition to his rule, social discontent at home and increasing restiveness within the armed forces.

“I wouldn’t be surprised if there is a coup within Chavismo . . . He [Maduro] can’t keep running the country like this,” Mr Pantoulas said. referring to the ruling movement formed by the late President Hugo Chávez, Mr Maduro’s patron and predecessor. “Venezuela at the moment is ungovernable.”

Oh please. Venezuela isn’t ungovernable — it’s suffering from a surfeit of government. And now that the country is about out of things for the socialists to loot, that’s the last surplus Venezuelans will “enjoy” until the socialists are gone.